1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image-forming apparatus.
2. Related Art
In image-forming apparatus utilizing electrophotographic processes, such as electrophotographic copying machines, laser printers, facsimile machines, or multifunctional OA processing machines, a visible toner image is formed by first uniformly forming a charge on an image holding member, which is a photoreceptor of an inorganic or organic material, then forming an electrostatic latent image thereon, with, for example, a laser beam obtained by a modulated image signal, and finally developing the electrostatic latent image with a charged toner. The toner image is then electrostatically transferred onto an image-receiving medium, such as recording paper, via an intermediate transfer body or directly, giving a desired reproduction of the image. Various image-forming apparatus have been proposed that use the above method of primary-transferring a toner image formed on an image holding member onto an intermediate transfer body, and then secondary-transferring the toner image from the intermediate transfer body to recording paper.
For example, in image-forming apparatus that use the above intermediate-transfer method, the intermediate transfer body is preferably a semiconductive endless belt. The term “semiconductive” means that the material in question has a volume resistivity of, for example, 107 to 1013 Ωcm, and this definition shall apply hereinafter unless specified otherwise.